Infant incubators



J1me 1967 G. GOERTZEL INFANT INCUBATORS Filed Nov. 14, 1963 INV ($33Min? ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofiice 3,326,203 Patented June 20,1967 3,326,203 INFANT INCUBATORS Gerald Goertzel, White Plains, N.Y.,assignor to Air Shields, Inc., Hatboro, Pa., a corporation of DelawareFiled Nov. 14, 1963, Ser. No. 323,736 1 Claim. (Cl. 128-1) Thisinvention relates to incubators and is especially concerned with infantincubators, particularly for premature infants.

In many infant incubators it is customary to provide armholes or accessports in one or more side walls of the hood of the incubator to enablethe giving of attention to the infant while the infant remains withinthe incubator. For certain purposes it is desirable to provide for morecomplete access to the infant than is practical by the use of thearmhole type of access port, and in most of the prior incubators, suchadditional or more complete access was obtainable only by removing orlifting the hood of the incubator so as to substantially completelyuncover or expose the infant support or mattress.

The present invention contemplates an incubator in which, in addition tothe commonly provided armholes or access ports, there is also providedan access door in a wall of the incubator, together with means enablingat least partial withdrawal of the infant support and thus of the infantout of the incubator for more complete access, without, however,requiring the lifting of the hood.

How the foregoing objects and advantages are attained will appear morefully from the following description referring to the accompanyingdrawing illustrating an incubator constructed according to the presentinvention and in which the single figure is an isometric view of theincubator with the access door above referred to in open position.

Referring to the drawing the incubator is adapted to be mounted on abase 1, preferably carried by casters 2, the base having appropriateequipment therein for conditioning the air circulated through theincubator, all of which equipment forms no part of the present inventionand therefore need not be considered herein. At the top of the base ismounted the hood of the incubator indicated gen erally by the numeral 3,this hood desirably being made of transparent wall panels, for instancepanels made of polymethyl methacrylate such as that available in themarket under the trade names Plexiglas and Lucite. The hood is generallyof oblong plan form, having side walls 44a, a top 5, a wall 6 at oneend, and a door 7 which constitutes the other end wall when the door isin closed position.

On top of the base 1 and within the hood 3 tracks 8 and 9 are providedfor mounting a mattress support 10 on which the mattress 11 is carried.Tracks 12 and 13 similar to tracks 8 and 9 are provided on the insidesurface of the door 7, the tracks 12 and 13 preferably being alignedwith tracks 8 and 9 respectively. Tracks 8 and 12 may desirably comprisea simple strip, but tracks 9 and 13 preferably are arranged tointerengage with track guides 14 provided on the underside of themattress support 10 and presenting a downwardly open groove in which thetracks 9 and 13 are received, thereby providing for guiding of themattress support when it is moved lengthwise of the tracks. This willprevent undesired cocking of the mattress support.

The door 7 is advantageously mounted by means of a hinge arranged at anelevation below the mattress support so that the door when it is swungdown to the honzontal position as shown in the figure will bring thetracks 12 and 13 to horizontal supporting position in alignment withtracks 8 and 9. The door is adapted to be supported in horizontalposition by struts 15 secured to the base 1 and working in slides on theoutside surface of the door.

The side walls 44a of the hood are preferably both provided with accessport-s having iris type closures 16 through which the hands and arms maybe inserted. The side wall 4 may if desired be arranged for displacementand removal in order to open up an entire side of the incubator.

By virtue of the arrangement of the door 7, and the tracks for mountingthe mattress support 10, the mattress and the infant thereon may readilybe displaced at least partway out of the hood and this will provideconvenient access to the infant for various purposes and alsofacilitates insertion of an infant in the incubator or removal of aninfant from the incubator without requiring lifting of the entire hoodor even opening of a side Wall thereof. A stop 17 is provided at theouter end of one of the tracks on the door in order to limit the outwardmovement of the mattress support.

According to the foregoing the incubator according to the invention notonly provides the armhole type of access through the iris ports 16 butalso enables more complete access to the infant by at least partialdisplacement of the infant support out of the end of the incubator. Eventhough displacement is only partial, it will be noted that in additionto the access provided through the end of the hood when the door isopen, the iris port 16 may still be employed for access to the inner endportion of the partially displaced infant support.

Although in the embodiment of the invention illustrated in theaccompanying drawing, the access door is located in an end wall of theincubator, the access door may be located in a side wall, as isdisclosed in the copending application of James R. Grosholz and John D.Wallace, Ser. No. 321,491 filed Nov. 5, 1963, and entitled InfantIncubator.

I claim:

An incubator comprising a base having an infant support and a box-likehood of oblong plan form surmounting the base and adapted to enclose theinfant support with an infant resting thereon, the hood having side andend walls and having an armhole in a side wall thereof and an accessdoor in an end wall thereof, the door being pivotally mounted on an axisbelow the level of the infant support and providing for outward anddownward pivotal opening movement of the door, means limiting theoutward and downward movement of the door to a position in which thedoor is substantially horizontal, and tracks on .the base and on theinside of the door adapted to carry the infant support and providing forshifting movement of the support to different positions with respect tothe armhole when the door is open.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 918,297 4/1909 Duffy 312-3111,782,523 11/1930 Warren 3l23l1 2,600,240 6/ 1952 'Grieb 1281 3,000,3769/1-961 Smith et a1. 128-1 3,158,150 11/1964 Croasdaile 1281 RICHARD A.GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

SIMON BRODER, Examiner.

